MATCH REPORT Canterbury Christ Church University 3rd XV 10 - 24 University of Hertfordshire 2nd XV After a two and a half hour journey Herts arrived at Canterbury prepared for a tough game of rugby. The 2s began with a slick warm up with not a single ball being dropped. It was clear at the end of the warm up that Herts were up for the game. The early skirmishes of the game were fought in the midfield with Herts forwards laying down the marker by applying early scrum pressure. Half-Backs, Peter Fodor and Jordan Harris created some chances early on dealing with the poor weather conditions, after a string of good chances the dominant Herts scrum set up the backs who linked up well to give Benji Willard a 20 metre run in for the first try of the game. From the restart CCC came out the stronger applying some heavy pressure on the Herts five meter line. Good defence from Herts repelled the constant pressure from CCC causing a turn over, following the turn over Jordan Harris sat nicely in the pocket to clear the ball but 2nd team captain Peter Fodor decided a box kick was more appropriate (clearly not taking previous experiences into account) which was predictably charged down. The ball ricocheted off to the side and into the hands of Jack Goldrick who drew the winger and threw a perfect pass to Michael ‘Magic’ Measter, so perfect that there was no way he could knock it on. This gave Michael 90 meters of field to burn with just the 15 in his way, Mike began his long adventure down the wing stepping around the 15 and missing the touchline by a whisker, sprinting the remaining 60 meters to make the score 10-0. Though Magic Mike scored a delightful try he was unaware that touching down under the posts helps the kicker and touched down towards the corner, the following conversion was missed, thanks Mike! Following the restart, Herts conceded a silly penalty giving CCC the chance to use their big forwards to crash up the ball, with as many as five missed tackles the CCC number 8 ran clean through the wall of Herts players to touch down to make the half time score 5-10. After a positive half time talk the Herts boys came out swinging for the second half. The poor conditions began to take control of the game with a high number of errors (mainly from Magic Mike). Though the knock-on count was rising so was the succession rate of the Herts scrum, retaining possession well and turning over a lot of ball thanks to some inspirational hooking from part time second team hooker Tommy Cattell. This constant access to the ball allowed Herts to make their way up the pitch. After a bombardment of Herts attacks in the CCC 22 some good hands from Peter and Mike led to Tommy being held up over the line. With the pressure from Herts growing, some quick hands from centre’s Luke Clemo and Lewis Edgeworth created width for Mike to run in for his second try of the day. The two points were added by Jordan Harris making the score 5-17. The forwards continued to dominate the match with big hits being put in from second row’s Colin and Ross and back row Vitali causing havoc all over the park. With the domination of the Herts forwards and the delicate execution of the backs Tommy found himself 15 meters from the CCC line with a large hole in the defence allowing him to simply walk over for his first try of the game, with Jordan Harris adding the extras the score stood at 5-24. The remaining 15 minutes of the game soon turned into an arm wrestle between the forwards. The fitness of the Herts pack was clearly better as no gaps appeared in the defence. With the hits getting bigger, front row William Micallef suffered a heavy cut to the head springing part time physio Adam Baxter into action to try and stop the bleeding. With the front row having to be ejected from the game Doughie Webber had to step up to play 8 and Jimmy slotted in at hooker pushing Cattell to 3. With the scrum disrupted the game became a bit more open leading to CCC boshing over a consolation try to leave the final score 10-24 to the mighty Hearts. Mentions for man of the match: Colin Dick of the Day : Magic Mike for his silly try placement Thanks to Hamish Burke and Jack Aroskin for supporting the team Adam Baxter Support Coach
Posted on: Mon, 21 Oct 2013 14:52:52 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015